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Do You Need Some Extra Brain Power This (Or Any!) Morning? Try This Surprising Scent

Good morning! So who here has a post-Oscars hangover? If you're feeling especially groggy this morning (those awards can go on and on) and your brain needs a bit of a jumpstart, you might want to turn to this unexpected herb...

... rosemary! New research set to be published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology discovered that study subjects who took a whiff of rosemary before undertaking a series of cognitive tests and mood assessments scored higher (and felt happier!) than subjects who didn't get to sniff the oh-so-fragrant herb. Researchers discovered that a certain compound in the rosemary had actually been absorbed into the subjects' blood plasma.

According to Dr. Mark Moss, who came up with the study: "It is our view that the aroma therefore acts like a therapeutic drug, rather than any effects being a result of the more sensory properties of the aroma."